Ready… Steady…Capture

"The joy of being a photographer mainly comes from knowing that after all is said and done, there are images that can transport someone back to a place and time that was significant and sentimental to them.”
Maria Thundu. Pic Courtesy: Mariathundu.com

Man? Woman? You have probably taken a photograph of yourself today.  This is no doubt the age of the “selfie” but is also  an era  where  more and more people  are  awakening  to the importance of quality photography especially here in Malawi.

One photographer famed for her high quality imagery is   Freelance Photographer  and the lady behind the majority of FAME Magazine’s  photography, Maria Thundu. The Soulful  photographer  gave us a glimpse of  current and future ventures behind the camera.

“I’m looking forward to providing images for Lake of Stars, FAME, which I’ve been a part of for the past few years, Mzuzu Fashion Week, which I hope to attend. Fortunately, there is a lot of work available and more people are learning to appreciate the value of high quality imagery, so there are a lot of opportunities.

Born in Malawi and bred in Ethiopia, Maria reveals that photography was not her first career line. Her’s was a journey of self-discovery that  began a few years ago while she worked as a successful copy-editor before returning home to start Mars Photography.

“Mars Photography blossomed over a two-year period, where I went from being unsure of what I was doing as someone new to the business and as a career change. I worked as a copy editor before I changed my line of work and I would take pictures regularly even then, but never thought of it as a full-time activity. It began with testing my skills as a photographer and building up my confidence and skills with each event.

“I began to take it more seriously and as a career option when I started receiving calls with job offers for photography. I had to wrap my head around the speed at which the interest grew, but I’m glad I held on through the pleasantly overwhelming turn of events.”

Today, Maria says she is doing what she loves most. Hers is a dream come true, a destiny on course.

“Carving a place in society through my work in photography allows me to do what I love while giving people lifetime memories that they can cherish. The joy of being a photographer mainly comes from knowing that after all is said and done, there are images that can transport someone back to a place and time that was significant and sentimental to them.”

On path to success, dedication to work remains unparalleled … Noel Chalamanda shares

pic:Noel Chalamanda is taking public service delivery
a level higher

He is the new face of local Government.  Although Mayor, Noel Chalamanda has only been in office for a year, he has  revolutionized the way people interface with Local Councils and the delivery of public services  in Malawi’s Metropolitan  City of Blantyre.  The City’s Council has  been given a shot of efficiency served with a people-focus approach. The man behind it  recently shared his secret with  me Patricia Mtungila as I   wore the cap of freelancer.

 

“I am just a person who was born and raised in Blantyre and who understands what Blantyre was  is and could be if we all played our part…”

 Chalamanda says  that the secret behind Blantyre’s apt transformation  is

 

“Nothing magical. I respond to people’s queries through different media especially social media, listen to suggestions, take time to meet a lot of people in my office regardless of their age or status in society, listen and discuss issues.”

 Despite, this mammoth shift in  style of public service delivery, there are no grunts. The people of Blantyre completely adore Mayor Chalamanda for his ability to innovatively deliver on his promise to  serve  Blantyre residents  by bringing about tangible change to the streets of Blantyre in so little time.

Duty calls: Mayor Chalamanda meets visiting
 Zambian president Edgar
Lungu

The success of the Blantyre City Mayor, like any other lasting success, has by no means come  by means of rubbing a Ginny .
 

Behind this successful man are these heartwarming fans.
Pic: Chalamanda's wife Pempho and children

 

“On path to success, dedication to work remains unparalleled . Action is more appreciated than eloquence. We must try in all circumstances to do that which we have been tasked to do and if we can be innovative, even better,"  he says.

 

Crowning it all  Noel Chalamanda, who has made a name for himself in private practice as a lawyer, has an unmatched fashion sense and will not be spotted looking anything but flawless.

“I also took it from my mother, who would say then, 'why are you dressed like a christmas tree?' when the colors were really not properly matching! it is good manners to dress well!"

 

 

School's out!

The school playgrounds are empty to allow for Standard Ones to cross to Standard Two and  Two to be elevated to Standard three and so on. School's out, Malawi's pupils are resting home or visiting away. The picture was taken on July 31 at Mwatibu Primary School in Nathenje off the M1 Road from Lilongwe to Blantyre.

The power-porridge behind Malawi's healthy babies

 Malawi has some of the most chubby and lovely babies I have ever seen. In both rural and urban Malawi chubby babies are a pleasantly and common site.

No doubt we do have food challenges in parts of Malawi but the site of a chubby Malawian baby is hard to miss walking through Lilongwe or indeed other parts of this country.

So what are we feeding our chubby- babies?

I give my baby  a porridge made from a mixture of  legumes: soya and groundnuts and maize.

My baby started eating the highly nutritious porridge at 7 months

Roasted Soya and groundnuts mixed with healthy maize grains

The  nutritious porridge flour from the grains is easy to make and uses readily available local ingredients. 

Sociological side of Malawi’s flood challenge

Pic: Courtesy BBC 

Too much has taken place in Malawi in the past three months including the coming of Nigerian artist Davido and of course the floods. Most prominently and of course sadly are the floods. 

Since floods broke out in Malawi many have asked the question, why do people from Nsanje, the worst hit area, not relocate to higher lands that are safer?

Well, many years ago, I asked the very same question and came to the all-to- common conclusion that probably the people of Nsanje remain in these flood-prone areas to benefit from relief food and items. That is what most people say after all.

But really asking, Jackson Mtungila,an Engineer working   and staying in the Capital,  Lilongwe who is  a Sena from  Nsanje, I learn much more. It is really not about the relief goods. It is much more complex than that.

“People have stayed in those lands for generations and besides would there be enough resources to move all those people upland?” he says.

pic:Courtesy BBC

I realized that there is need for a more sociologically inclusive plan if the government of Malawi is to secure precious lives in the lower Shire Valley especially Nsanje District. People in this part of Malawi, who are mostly from the  Sena tribe, are known to have strong cultural values.

Living in these dangerous valleys is one deep-rooted cultural norm that will require a sociological intervention.  It will be an uphill task for government and the civil society but it can be done. So far, UNICEF indicates that since the onset of cyclones that have resulted in the deadly floods, 230 have already been displaced while number of dead  or missing stands at 276,  645 people had been injured.

Scrutinize Lilongwe's legal clinics too

I would like to commend the Medical Council of Malawi for closing down 44 illegal clinics as reported in July by the Daily Times newspaper. I would also like to commend Police and others in Blantyre for cracking down on two bogus doctors at referral facility Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital since October 2014.

 This is commendable and should be extended to other parts of the country. These officials have saved so many residents of Blantyre from danger and from the fear of being overdosed, wrongly or improperly treated.However, another area that has to be checked as far as medical services is concerned are private clinics and hospitals. 

Lilongwe has a numbers of legal private clinics, general clinics, specialists’ clinics and general private hospitals. Some of these expensive or high-paying hospitals and clinics have not done much justice to their clients in recent years. 

In Lilongwe, my experience is few medical centers show how they come up with the bills and if you insist on inquiring about the specific costs, the accountant gets upset!  For fear of being treated terribly when they fall sick again, patients keep quite. Besides, most Malawians are yet to cultivate the culture of inquiring. And, left unchecked this is how medical schemes are becoming cash cows for some unscrupulous cashiers and accountants.

Additionally, most doctors and clinicians at private clinics do not tell you what they are treating you for save for handing you a little bag of medications. Patients have the right to know what they are being tested and treated for. Details of patient’s rights should be pasted on hospital and clinic walls as  is the case in public hospitals.

My plea to these clinics is that they should not attempt to dispose off as much medicines on one patient at one visit, precious life is at stake when things are done this way, as medics you know this all too well. As for the authorities, please act swiftly to reverse the dwindling health standards in our beautiful country. 

That said I would like to congratulate the Adventist Hospital in Lilongwe for being open as far as bills are concerned and gratitude should also go to Deyang Like Hospital in Kanengo for both openness in bills and such warm friendly and thorough specialist care given every time you visit. Deyang Luke Hospital in my view is greatly assisting the government to manage the enormous disease burden in Lilongwe and surrounding areas and should be supported in as many ways by the government including constructing a proper road to the hospital. As things have turned out in the news media more fake medics are still hiding in public clinics and hospitals. We are looking forward to more continued government action on these.

There is hope for a fast Internet in Malawi

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Is there any hope for a fast Internet in Malawi? A topical question, indeed, that is asked by the majority of Internet users in Malawi. The future of Malawi’s Internet is fast. For the students, research and others in the education sectors in Malawi, help is on the way through UbuntuNet, the high speed Internet network for research and education in Eastern and Southern Africa.  

No doubt. The slow internet causes many inconveniences for business and personal users. However, for students and researchers, Malawi’s slow internet is a tremendous challenge as it could spell the difference between a failed project and a success. The African research and education community has for far too long carried the burden of slow Internet connectivity which has consequently widened the gap between the continent’s researchers and their peers globally.

Realizing that research is the core of any meaningful and sustainable development, the European Union co-funded a 4 year project called the AfricaConnect. The AfricaConnect project aims to establish an affordable high-capacity Internet network for research and education in Southern and Eastern Africa to provide the region with a gateway to global research collaboration. Malawi through the government is part of this Initiative.

 AfricaConnect Project is partly funded by the European Commission’s DG Development and Cooperation – EuropeAid, in the framework of the ‘ACP Connect’ programme of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), which has injected €11.8 million (about MK700 Million) of MK850 million (€14.75M) total budget of the project. The remainder is being contributed by the African partners.  

The collaborative initiative is being coordinated by DANTE Ltd based in Cambridge, UK, and partnered by UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking, Eastern and Southern Africa’s association of National Research and Education networks (NRENs). Other parties participating in the project include the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) – as well as the Association of African Universities; existing National Research and Education Networks in Africa (DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Madagascar, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia); and several European NRENs (Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK).

However, as with any progress comes responsibility. Terms for AfricaConnect beneficiaries include that the researchers and education institutions join together to form National Research and Education Networks (NREN) and further harmonize at regional level under UbuntuNet Alliance.

A major immediate impact of the network to countries like Zambia that readily embraced the project is that connectivity costs have dropped from a regional average of $4000 per megabit per second per month to $135 per megabit per second per month indicating a 97 percent price reduction in just four years!

 “We are delivering international and regional bandwidth to NRENs in these counties at a consolidated price of $135 per megabit per second per month. I find this exciting, because, at last we have eliminated one barrier to regional participation in global research and education collaboration,” Says Chief Executive Officer of UbuntuNet Alliance, Eng. Dr Tusu Tusubira.

Dr Tusubira promises that the aim is to reduce connectivity to an average of less than $100 per month per megabit per second by 2017.

This network offering high speed and yet affordable connectivity is extremely complex and requires specialized human resources to manage the networks and connections in all participating countries. To build a critical mass of well trained engineers to manage he network, the AfricaConnect project in partnership with, the International Network for Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) and Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) and the Internet Society (ISOC) provides capacity building initiatives to train engineers in all participating countries.

Since 2011, over 40 network engineers from countries that include Malawi have been trained in advanced routing. Some have been trained as trainers to help trickle down the expertise they gain. Presently, peak 17 of the engineers that have been able to replicate their skills by organising training workshops in their countries are headed to Lusaka for further training at UbuntuNet-Connect 2014, the annual conference of UbuntuNet Alliance. Though Malawi’s network engineers failed to scoop this opportunity, there is hope for further training, next year.

That said the future of Internet in Malawi is certainly fast, especially for the research and education sector. As a founding member of the UbuntuNet Alliance, Malawi through the Malawi Research and Education Network (MAREN) having already committed some funds to connect to the UbuntuNet network, remains to contribute about MK100 million to meet its financial obligation as part of the Euro 280,000 required to start benefitting from the high speed connectivity, which will enable Malawi to save millions.

AfricaConnect has birthed a more reliable, secure, high-speed network that offers greater connectivity between African countries, as well as high-speed links to the pan-European GÉANT.

Economically, the UbuntuNet network is gradually pushing countries in this Eastern and Southern Africa towards realizing the MDGs through improved ICT.

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